Threads of the Soul

Chapter 491 - 491: What does it mean to be Celestial?

Corvus was already standing in the 'Meeting Room' when Seth arrived, and he was not the only one. Hundreds of faces greeted him as soon as he entered, and hundreds more greeted him as he turned around to gaze throughout the room.With the triangular meeting table as the centre point trillions, possibly even quadrillions or quintillions, of individuals filled their soul chamber. Beasts and humans, men and women, children and the elderly.

Everything that had ever lived and died in the entire existence of the earth was crammed into the soul of one man, metaphorically speaking. Literally speaking it was crammed into the soul of one man who was actually three men, without the trench-coat.

That wasn't exactly better just a little bit more accurate. Honestly, there wasn't really a way to make this sound better. It was genuinely surprising that Seth hadn't simply exploded with the amount of soul energy being pumped into him all at once.

The fact he was still alive, even in a temporary existential sense that might, was a miracle beyond his capabilities.

For a moment, Scar popped into the room at Seth's summons, before he suddenly shouted,

"I'M BUSY! GIVE ME A SECOND!"

Before disappearing again. Seth and Corvus didn't mind too much, as they were still staring in awe at the countless people and animals surrounding them. All of the wayward souls stared back, their eyes empty and lifeless yet filled with an unyielding wanting.

They were hungry, and desperate, but unable to do anything but want.

Seth's eyes focused on a young girl, who looked quite similar to his sister. Although she was wearing an old Edwardian nightgown and had different hair, so he knew for a fact it wasn't her.

She lifted her hands, pressing them against the air as an invisible wall rippled into view from the point she touched.

Seth frowned, locking eyes with her as they stared each other down. The barrier rippling more as she pressed against it harder, before she disappeared from the crowd. Seth's body was suddenly replaced with the girls, who gasped in air as if she had been drowning.

Her hands clawed at Corvus as she began to sob.

"Please... Oh god please... You have to help me. I didn't see anything, I swear! Just please...They're trying to kill me! THEY'RE TRYING TO-"

The girls form twisted and mangled itself, forcibly turning back to Seth's original appearance, and leaving the girl standing back outside of the barrier as she stared in longingly.

At the same moment, Scar appeared again. His tricorn hat in his hand as he pushed his hair out of his scarred face and huffed in annoyance.

"What the hell was that?! You can't just pull me in with no warning. You almost got some of my crew killed! And what was with the other... thing..."

Scar's anger fell as his face shifted into shock and confusion, as he joined the other two in staring out at the crowd around them.

"What the hell is going on here..."

"You missed the demonstration buttercup," Seth said with ragged breathes, "and I am not going to give another one. Not if I can help it.

But if you want to know what to blame, blame that thing."

He raised a weak hand and pointing a trembling hand towards the box that now floated just above the surface of their meeting table, right in the middle of it.

"I don't know how long it will take to start effecting you too... But I doubt it will be long. I can already feel the shield... someone put up starting to fail. We don't have much time."

Seth said as he staggered over to Corvus, grabbing the collar of his cloak and dragging his cloak.

"Time for you to share the secret of being a 'True Celestial'."

Corvus glanced at the box, then at all the people surrounding them like an army of zombies waiting to get in, before he let out a deep sigh.

"I'm not entirely sure, but... I think it has to do with understanding yourself."

"Understanding your... that's what you've got for me?!" Seth dragged him closer, before shoving him away before he punched him.

"Listen, I know how it sounds..." Corvus tried to explain, "it's fortune cookie crap. But I thought about it a lot... All the times I felt this... connection inside me, it was when I was coming closer to the truth of who I am.

It's not just about knowing who you are. It's about knowing it without a doubt, and then weaving that understanding into the universe itself.

It's in the name... You are Celestial. As fixed in the universe as a Star. A universal constant. You need to-"

"Bend the universe to your will..." Seth finished, his eyes staring off into space as he recalled what Death had said to him.

That he didn't need to bend the universe to his will because he was made by it. But that also meant the opposite was true.

That others could bend the universe to their will and become as constant as Death itself. But to do such a thing... you would need one of the strongest wills in existence.

It offered no room for doubt in your own existence, your own purpose. He had to solidify his own identity into existence, to keep it is such.

So simple and yet, so dreadfully impossible.

He was in the middle of considering if such a thing was even the solution, when his body - which was really its soul - tore itself apart again and forced itself into the form of another in the crowd. This time, turning him into a howling wolf which quickly turned back to his true self howling in agony.

"Ah screw it... It can't be any worse than this. I did say I would meet him again, after all... I just hope it's not too soon."

Seth muttered, much to the confusion of his other selves, as he sat down at the table and closed his eyes. He took long, deep breathes as he began to meditate deeply on the reality of his own existence.

Scar and Corvus watched with bated breath for five long minutes, but nothing happened. Which would have been perfect on its own, nothing happening was one of the best things they could have hoped for.

Yet at the next moment, one of the crowd disappeared, their soul turning into nothing but a mote of energy that flowed into the cube floating above the table, and then into a trio of streams that flowed into each of them.